End of a modern day dynasty...

Today our nation bid the final farewell to one of our beloved, Senator Edward Moore Kennedy. He was known to many Americans by different names depending on the audience. Some of us knew him as simply "Ted" or "Teddy" Kennedy. Others note him for being the youngest and the last of the Kennedy brothers. "The baby of the family" is how my grandmother describes him. Personally, even before his final days of battling brain cancer I demanded that my children know of this great man. "You need to know who this is," I told them as I read excerpts about him to my girls. "Of the white Americans who did the most to help the advancement of civil rights, Ted Kennedy would be on the short list. He may even be at the top of it," said Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University. "He wasn't just for civil rights in the sense of the movement, but for dignity rights for all people."To others he was known as the "Lion of the Senate". Respected amongst most of his peers, during the eulogy, even our President called him " "a champion for those who had none, the soul of the Democratic party and the lion of the United States Senate."
Senator Ted Kennedy held his position in the U.S. Senate for more than four decades. Kennedy was considered one of the most effective legislators of the past few decades, especially in his ability to cross party lines to get legislation passed. He had major roles in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act, the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act and the Kennedy-Hatch law of 1997. In 1994, Kennedy was instrumental in helping the Clinton administration with its plan to overhaul health care. In 2001, Kennedy worked with President Bush to enact the No Child Left Behind Act. He later complained publicly that he had been hoodwinked, because the legislation did not include funding to pay for its requirements. Kennedy voted against the Iraq war, in 2003. He fought for comprehensive health care alongside the nation's first black president, Barack Obama. In fact, Kennedy, an early supporter of Obama's presidential campaign, seemingly handed the torch down to Obama before the "Super Tuesday" Democratic primaries by likening the senator from Illinois to his brother, the late president, John F. Kennedy. I can recall on that Tuesday, the laughter of my father when as we watched the senator endorse Obama. "That's it, if Ted has put his stamp on it, that's all he needs," he said. It was somewhat true, senator Kennedy held a lot of weight in the senate. It will be very hard to replace him. Rest in peace, Sir.